Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jleerigby]

I recently checked out Music Lobby as I've been a bit disappointed with Theatre View to date.  Unfortunately Music Lobby doesn't really do it for me either as it's primarily mouse driven unless you have a touch screen or PPC.

In fact I prefer Theatre View in MC in terms of ease of Navigation and the clean simple look.  What would really help (and I know it's been mentioned before) is the ability configure view schemes so that thumbnails in Theatre View only show when you want them to.  

My suggested solutuion is to have this as an attribute of the view item in 'Edit View Scheme'.  It would be good if you could edit an item (like you do to add a grouping) and check a box for 'Show as thumbnail in Theatre View'.  Then whenever you drill down to this point in Theatre View it would swtich to Thumbnails.  

E.g. You could have a View scheme like this:

Artist (Grouped 3)
Artist
Album (Show as Thumbnail)

If this were to be implemented I would also suggest an Option in 'Configure Theatre View' for users to select one of the following:
- Always show thumbnails
- Never show thumbails
- Automatic (as per view scheme)

By doing something like this it would not be too big an issue for me if Thumbnail caching were not implemented as I would only see thumbnails when I've drilled down to a specific artist.

I think this would be a great little addition to Theatre View.

[Matt]

Do you want this because of the performance of thumbnails on your system?

If so, let's figure that out instead.  Theater View is very snappy for us.

How many files do you have?
What view schemes are slow and does simplifying them make a difference?
Is it only slow the first time you look at a scheme or everytime?
How fast is your computer?

Thanks JLee.

-Matt

(btw, Theater View does have thumbnail caching)

[Michigan_nik]

I would also like to be able to use thumbnails only for some view schemes.
The problem isn't speed but there are some schemes where a list mode would be more logical and easier to navigate. Always switching the thumbnail mode and list mode by remote is a real pain and a waste of time. I think JLee suggestion on how to implement such a feature is pretty straight forward.

[Matt]

I thought he was talking about whether you should see a list of artists and child view schemes when you go into "Audio" vs seeing just a list of child view schemes.

Am I all wet JLee?

[gpvillamil]

I got the impression that JLee was suggesting that different "levels" under a view scheme might have a preferred way of displaying lists or thumbnails.

For example, if you are in Theatre View and drilling down through a Genre/Artist/Album view scheme:

Genre - shown as list
Artist - shown as thumbnails
Albums - shown as thumbnails
Individual tracks - shown as list

Something like that...

[jleerigby]

First of all thanks for taking an interest in this Matt - I know how busy you guys are so that's much appreciated.

Michigan_nik & gpvillamil were spot on in that I don't feel it's logical to have thumbnails on all the time.  For example, if I'm selecting from a list of artists I just want a list - it's much quicker to navigate.  When I've selected the artist I'd like to see the artist's albums in Thumbnails.  Once I've selected the album I want to see the tracks in a list.

Do you want this because of the performance of thumbnails on your system?

Yes and no.  No because the above is a very valid point.  yes because I'm surprised you say that thumbnail caching is implemented.  If I view this VS:

album artist (auto) (grouped 4)
album artist (auto)
Album

...when I select A-C the thumbails start to build.  If I page down it builds some more.  If I page up it doesn't rebuild - it must have cached them.  If however, I press left arrow twice to go back and then reslect A-C it builds the thumbnails again.  As I'm using a 42" screen at 848*480 res the large thumbnail looks best. I think this is the key as to why it's slower to build the thumbs- too painfull for words.

I have 23K files and my VS are pretty simple like the example above.  My album VS for example is separated using VS groups into a Single artist scheme and a compilations scheme - just to make it cleaner when browsing.  I don't have any ~ modifiers in these schemes or the parents as I did some testing for you with Dragyn a while back and know that this affects performance.

I have 2 computers, a Tower and a new HTPC but inside they are pretty similar performance wise (different hardware though).  My HTPC for example only ever runs MC, Powerstrip and Girder - nothing else.  I have an ATI 9600 pro running at 8x AGP, Athlon XP 2200+, 1GB DDR 333 RAM.  All latest drivers and BIOS.

But, going back to my first point I think it would be a fantastic improvement to Theatre View to give us the flexibility to have Thumbnails when we want them i.e. when it's most appropriate - not just for performance but for usability and aesthetics.  It just so happens that a side effect of this would be a performance improvement too for many people. [edit - The great thing about MC is that the way it's view schemes are built it lends itself to easy customisation.  With many other programs it would be difficult, cumbersome and complex to add this flexibility but with MC it's just another selection in the VS wizard].

Thanks again for your interest.  Let me know what you think.

[Matt]

About the speed, there are two parts:

1) Figure out what art is associated with a label (i.e. Genre: Rock)

This may be slow with 30k files because to decide what art to use for an item, MC must search the library to get a list of files, then convert the list to albums, then use the first 4 pieces of art from the different albums.  So, lots of searches get run if you have a lot of icons visible.

2) Load that art and draw it

This is fast. Thumbs are only built once and then stored on disk.  There is a second memory cache layer on top of that.


As for remembering thumbs vs. list style, maybe it could just remember on a per view-scheme basis or something.  It sounds cumbersome to make users think about this when creating a view scheme.  ( as you saw, I was confused just thinking about it )

Could a more simple "remember how I had it last" or "only show thumbs when files are visible" system work?

Thanks.

[Matt]

BTW, it might help if you sent us the 42" plasma for testing

[jleerigby]

The way you describe how speed could be an issue is a very good reason to introduce some sort of 'Thumbails according to view' function.  If MC only tried to show thumbnails when I'm looking at half a dozen albums by a single artist that would be lightening fast right?  

Could a more simple "remember how I had it last"

 Possibly but I could see this getting difficult to maintain. For example, does that mean I have to drill down to every artist and select thumbnails to get MC to remember.

or "only show thumbs when files are visible" system work?

 Actually I only want to see thumbs when albums are visible not files.

It sounds cumbersome to make users think about this when creating a view scheme.

I see where you are coming from here.  There is a balance to be struck between adding powerful features and keeping MC intuitive for the non-power users.  That's why I was suggesting the settings:

- Always show thumbnails
- Never show thumbnails
- Automatic (as per view scheme)

An alternative would be the following options in Configure Theatre view which would keep it the way it is now by default:

Thumbnails:
- Enable toggling between Thumbnail and List (Default)
- Automatic (Show thumbails as per view scheme settings)

BTW, it might help if you sent us the 42" plasma for testing

On it's way  

[Uwe]

little OT:
I'm very pleased to see that we're on the right way.
Thanks JLee for your efforts concerning the Hairstyle Theater View.
Matt, i hope my translation for "very snappy" is right
I think the Theater View is the interface to new customers and last but not least the families acceptance for our freakiness.
So please, don't loose the focus  

Uwe

[Platu]

Matt,

I also feel a strong need to set an option to view Thumnails or Lists PER VIEW SCHEME.  In addition to the reasons mentioned previously, I feel that Theatre View should always reset to default values defined in "Edit View Scheme". If you were just to have MC remember the last choice, my kids or any guests using it could easily ruin the view I prefer to have of my media.  I feel that Theatre View should be configured ONLY in Standard view without the possibility of messing anything up when in Theatre View.  


Platu

[jleerigby]

Matt, any thoughts on this since our last discussion?

I think this is a good example of an improvement where 'everybody wins'.  It'd be a big leap forward for Theatre View.

[Michigan_nik]

This feature would be a good reason for me to buy Version 10

[Bryan]

I'd like to see this feature also.  I've always wished I could view albums as thumbnails and tracks as a list while in Theater View..  JLee's suggested implementation of this would be ideal.